How do you budget?

Paper? Quicken? Online program?

Also, do you go buy a certain percentage to allocate money for a certain category?

And how DO you spend? We charge nearly everything, including groceries and gas. I like the idea of cash but I don't think Fresh Direct takes cash and when DH or I are alone in the car with DS, we can't leave him to pay a gas attendant to start the pump. So we always charge gas.

Just looking for ways to keep our money in check.

Just realized people probably use debit cards. Duh.

Message edited 6/19/2013 6:18:05 AM.

Re: How do you budget?

How do you budget?

My monthly budget is on a Excel Spreadsheet. Monthly fixed expenses - cell, internet, cable, etc. go on a credit card that I earn rewards points on, I have an alert on my email that tells me the day it hits so I can transfer the money immediately and not accumlate a balance.

The rest of the expenses: gas, food, spending money, house (home depot trips), oil - are all cash. I have envelopes for each one and I only use cash and not my debit card. I was spending too much money and it was too easy with the debit card. Now, I have to think about if I have the cash to spend the money.

How do you budget?

If you can't do cash open up a checking account simply for spending (groceries, gas, eating out, shopping, etc). Put your set amount for the week/month whatever into that account and use the debit card. That way when you run out of $$ that's it.

Re: How do you budget?

Re: How do you budget?

I use Mint.com. I see exactly how much I spend per week on food, drug stores, shopping, gas, etc. I love it!

Re: How do you budget?

How do you budget?

I do a number of things.... I take the amount of our bills and divide by our 6 paychecks with get so the same amount is taken out weekly. That way we always have the amounts covered. I round up to the nearest hundred so that way misc bills like co-pays and water bill are always covered regardless. Then from there, I figure food, allowance, entertainment,savings etc. Yes, DH and I get a set allowance. We spend it on gas, lunch and whatever we want. We follow this budget strictly. I also have a Mint account which shows our spending and credit cards, etc.

Message edited 6/27/2013 12:32:14 PM.

Re: How do you budget?

I have a set amount every week that I put into savings as well as an account for spending money.

Then I pay off bills that are due that week from whatever's left in checking.

After all bills for that week are paid, anything left besides $100 is transferred into savings. I leave $100 in my joint checking which is for gas money really.

I also bring my lunch every day to work and only go to Starbucks in the AM (which I put money on my Starbucks card for since I gain points for freebies that way).

I just started getting paid bi-weekly so I am going to have to change things up slightly soon (still have $$ coming in weekly from old job).

Re: How do you budget?

We use a notebook and do our budget on there. It is done monthly broken down by each pay check and a "debt pay down" area.

We are working on being debt free.

Re: How do you budget?

I don't really budget but here is how manage my money/live within my means/stay out of debt.

Get paid direct deposit
Max allowable amount goes directly to 403B
Set amount goes directly to two 529 fund for 2 kids
Another set amount gets transferred directly to my savings
I pay all my bills on time
The rest sits in checking (not a lot but a cushion to have cash handy if I need it)

The 2 amts for savings and college are really just a conservative amount of what I can afford after all fixed bills are paid.

I use a Amex jet blue points card for everything I can. That's a vaca savings IMO.

I think I watch what I spend and I'm sure there is always room to watch more/spend even less but I also like to live in a certain comfort zone.

I do a lot of things to keep costs down so its not worth it to me to use a spread sheet etc.

Message edited 8/9/2013 6:21:44 AM.

Re: How do you budget?

we use quicken to keep track of totals, excel AND paper to budget monthly
and mint but just to see all accounts at a glance

got a new computer and i need to find a new method as i'm not buying quicken again.... i dont like programs that auto match / link to your accounts - i like to enter them myself. any suggestions?

Re: How do you budget?

I like Clearcheckbook. I enter the amounts manually and have separate accounts for personal and joint.

Re: How do you budget?

Re: How do you budget?

Online and free. You can also get a free app for your phone.

Re: How do you budget?

Re: How do you budget?

Autopay bills (mortgage, water, sewer, heat, electricity, insurance, 401k., student loans, maintenance fees, etc.). Ask your employer to set up multiple accounts so you can also create an autopayment for savings in addition to the 401k. This way you are automatically saving the percentage of your salary you want to save. What ever is left after all of your bills and savings are autopaid, is then the amount you have to spend on food, entertainment, clothing, gifts,etc., and any other bills that cannot be placed on autopayment. You can always up your savings rates or create a new account for saving towards something specific like a car, vacation, furniture, etc.

Re: How do you budget?

I use mint and have an excel spreadsheet of all bills.

I also have several sinking funds in a 360 account (xmas, gifts, vacation fund, house maintenance, savings, oil, etc) in which xyz amount gets transferred into each account at certain times of the month.

I have a list of all items charged on our credit card and then like PP said, i transfer the money as soon as it hits.

Gas, food, groceries, kids activities, etc etc... i keep budgets for on mint and get emails if i'm getting close to going over.

Re: How do you budget?